[Changes in evoked potentials during systematic exposure to a series of similar signals with variable intersignal...

Series of clicks, standard by the number of stimuli and greatly varying by the length of interstimuli intervals in each series, were systematically presented to dogs without reinforcement. Evoked potentiale (EP) in the cortical auditory zone were recorded. It has been found that a typical U-shaped distribution of amplitude values of averaged EP is elaborated in the series in the course of repeated presentations; a maximal amplitude is observed in response to the first and last clicks, and a minimal, in the middle of the series. Such a regularity was previously found for the action of standard series with a constant interstimuli interval. It is assumed that an estimation may take place in the dog CNS of the number of signals used in a series, whose mechanism is not necessarily based on the time factor. The ability to estimate the number of signals in the series may be regarded as an elementary model of counting in the dogs' CNS.